Because you travel freed of expectations, you are more open to new experiences and thus experience more. My favourites for this year:

I’m probably most fond of my tea and talks with Faris on the Jordan Trail. After more than 40 hours without seeing a living soul and climbing out of a canyon, it was the best thing to meet such a friendly, caring person. We only met by accident – I had not spotted him when he yelled at me from a nearby canyon.

When traveling in Iceland on the Laugavegur trail, I met two Dutchies and later two Ukranian ladies who were kind enough to allow me to join them for a part of the hike. Both duos helped me get through the tougher parts of the trail. Traveling alone and hiking alone has many benefits, one of them being that it is super easy to connect with others – I really benefitted from this during the hard parts of the hike.

When my wife and I were in Madrid, one of the employees at the One Shot Fortuny recommended us to go to Fismuler, a nearby restaurant. We had some great food there.

Our city trip to Madrid was pretty much textbook how to explore a city. We easily found restaurants, areas of the city, wine bars and other places to have a great weekend.

I probably would have loved hiking the Jordan Trail in Jordan the most this year, but unfortunately because of illness, a grave navigational error and the flash floods in Petra, I only was able to hike from Dana to Petra. It still is one of my fondest travel memories ever.

Wonderweekend in Meise with my wife and daughter was magical as well – super simple (cardboard tents, some actors and above all – a lot of things normally wouldn’t do at home), but an amazing family experience.

Best hotel experiences of 2018

With spending so many nights in hotels (I went well over the 200 nights again this year, 110 at IHG properties, 71 at Hilton properties, 10 at Marriott properties and 21 at other properties), I have had some clear favourites:

QO Amsterdam would have probably made my number one spot, where it not for their confusing experience and the minor issue with service (broken iPads, confusing front desk experience). Apart from the One Shot Fortuny, the best breakfast I had this year.

My favorite gear of 2018

My worst travel experiences of 2018

Although I had some amazing travel experiences, it is difficult to avoid some bad experiences. So here are my worst travel experiences of 2018:

One IHG property had another person’s email address connected to my stay this year (with all data/privacy concerns connected). The follow-up (or lack of) has been textbook horrible. When it’s all over, I’ll write a full blog post on it.

IHG forgot to post stays to my account 12 times this year (about 1 out of every 7 stays). At some point, 6 out of my last 8 stays weren’t posted. Why call it a rewards program when you won’t get rewards.

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